Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Akhirnya kami mencapai kompromi kecil, jadi semua orang setuju membayar denda yang sama. - In the end we reached a small compromise, so everyone agreed to pay the same fine.

You can also say pada akhirnya, which is often a bit more formal or reflective (“ultimately / in the end”), but akhirnya is the most common, natural choice here, especially in spoken Indonesian.

Why is kami used instead of kita? What’s the difference?

Both mean “we/us”, but:

kami = we (not including the listener)
kita = we (including the listener)

Here, Akhirnya kami mencapai kompromi kecil implies:

“Finally we (but not you, the person I’m talking to) reached a small compromise.”

If the speaker wanted to include the listener as part of that group who reached the compromise, they would say:

Akhirnya kita mencapai kompromi kecil...

So kami vs kita is about whether the listener is part of the group or not.

Why do we use mencapai with kompromi? Could we also say membuat kompromi?

Mencapai literally means “to reach/achieve,” and it’s often used with abstract nouns:

mencapai kesepakatan – reach an agreement
mencapai tujuan – achieve a goal
mencapai hasil – reach a result
mencapai kompromi – reach a compromise

This mirrors English “reach a compromise” very closely.

You can sometimes see membuat kompromi (“make a compromise”), and it’s understandable, but it’s less idiomatic than mencapai kompromi. Native speakers strongly prefer mencapai kompromi or mencapai kesepakatan in this kind of context.

What does kompromi kecil mean exactly? Why kecil and not sedikit kompromi?

kompromi kecil literally means “a small compromise” or “a minor compromise.”

kecil is a normal adjective: “small / little (in degree or scale)”
So kompromi kecil = a compromise that is not very big or significant.

sedikit means “a little / a bit (quantity),” so:

sedikit kompromi would sound like “a little (amount of) compromise,” which is unusual and not how people normally phrase this.
kompromi sedikit is ungrammatical in standard Indonesian; adjectives usually come after the noun, but sedikit in this sense doesn’t work as a normal adjective here.

So the natural way to say “a small / minor compromise” is kompromi kecil.

What is the function of jadi after the comma? Is it like “so,” “therefore,” or “because”?

Here jadi works like “so” in English (a coordinating conjunction introducing a result):

..., jadi semua orang setuju membayar denda yang sama.
= “..., so everyone agreed to pay the same fine.”

Some rough comparisons:

jadi – “so,” informal–neutral, very common in speech and writing
sehingga – “so that / to the extent that,” more formal or cause–effect focused
oleh karena itu / maka – “therefore / thus,” quite formal

You could say:

Akhirnya kami mencapai kompromi kecil, sehingga semua orang setuju membayar denda yang sama.

That sounds more formal or written, while jadi feels more conversational and natural in everyday use.

Why is it semua orang and not setiap orang? Do they mean the same “everyone”?

Both relate to “everyone,” but with slightly different nuances:

semua orang = all people / everyone (as a group)
- Emphasis on the whole group collectively.
setiap orang = each person / every person (individually)
- Emphasis on individuals, one by one.

In this sentence:

... jadi semua orang setuju membayar denda yang sama.
Focus: as a group, they all agreed.

If you said:

... jadi setiap orang setuju membayar denda yang sama.

it’s still grammatically correct, but it emphasizes more that each individual person agreed (one by one). semua orang is the more typical and neutral choice here.

Why is it setuju membayar and not setuju untuk membayar or setuju bahwa mereka akan membayar?

The verb setuju (“to agree”) can be followed directly by another verb:

setuju + VERB = “agree to VERB”
- setuju membayar – agree to pay
- setuju pergi – agree to go
- setuju bekerja lembur – agree to work overtime

Using untuk is also possible:

setuju untuk membayar denda yang sama

This is still correct, but a bit more formal or heavier. In everyday speech, Indonesians often just say setuju + verb.

You can also use a clause with bahwa (“that”):

setuju bahwa mereka akan membayar denda yang sama
= “agree that they will pay the same fine.”

This is more complex and more formal. For a simple “agreed to pay,” setuju membayar is the most natural and concise.

There is no past tense marking on the verbs. How do we know this happened in the past?

Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense (past, present, future). Time is usually understood from:

Time words / adverbs – e.g. kemarin (yesterday), tadi (just now), nanti (later)
Context
Certain adverbs like sudah (already) or telah (have/has)

In this sentence:

Akhirnya implies a process that has already concluded.
The situation (reaching a compromise, agreeing to pay) naturally sounds like something that has already happened.

If you wanted to be very explicit, you could add sudah:

Akhirnya kami sudah mencapai kompromi kecil, jadi semua orang setuju membayar denda yang sama.

But it’s not required; Indonesians are very comfortable relying on context to understand time.

Why do we need yang in denda yang sama? Could we just say denda sama?

Structure-wise:

denda yang sama literally: “the fine that is the same”
- denda = fine
- yang = a linker/relativizer
- sama = same

In noun + yang + adjective, yang works like “that/which is,” but often doesn’t need to be translated. It just links the noun and the describing word:

orang yang pintar – the person (who is) smart
baju yang baru – the (piece of) clothing (that is) new
denda yang sama – the fine (that is) the same

Can you say denda sama?

In everyday speech, people might say sama dendanya / dendanya sama (“the fine is the same”).
But as a noun phrase before the verb, denda yang sama is the standard and clearest form.

So denda yang sama is the natural, grammatically complete phrase meaning “the same fine” (same amount of fine).

What exactly does denda mean? Is it always “fine,” or can it also mean “punishment” or “fee”?

denda = a monetary penalty: a fine you pay as a punishment.

Typical uses:

membayar denda – pay a fine
denda keterlambatan – late fee/late fine
denda tilang – traffic ticket fine

It is not a general word for “punishment”; that would be:

hukuman – punishment (not necessarily money; could be jail, etc.)

It is also not the usual word for a neutral “fee”:

biaya / bayaran – fee, cost, charge (neutral, not a punishment)

So in this sentence, denda clearly means “fine (as punishment)” and denda yang sama = “the same fine amount.”

Is denda yang sama more like “the same fine” (one shared fine) or “an equal amount of fine” for each person?

By itself, denda yang sama is a bit flexible:

The same specific fine
- There is one fixed fine (e.g., 100,000 rupiah), and everyone agrees that this is the fine they will all pay, perhaps jointly or per person.
The same amount of fine per person
- Each person pays separately, but the amount is identical for all.

The sentence itself:

... jadi semua orang setuju membayar denda yang sama.

most naturally suggests: everyone will pay an equal amount (the same fine amount each), but exact interpretation can depend on the previous context (which is not shown here). Grammatically, both readings are possible.

Can Indonesian drop the subject kami here, like just Akhirnya mencapai kompromi kecil?

Indonesian can drop pronouns when the subject is obvious from context, but:

Akhirnya mencapai kompromi kecil (without kami) is incomplete/awkward in isolation. It sounds like something is missing: who reached the compromise?

If earlier sentences already made it very clear who the subject is, a native speaker might omit it in rapid speech, but in normal clear Indonesian you’d keep the subject:

Akhirnya kami mencapai kompromi kecil...

So for a full, natural, and unambiguous sentence, keeping kami is strongly preferred.

Could we replace jadi with sehingga or karena itu without changing the meaning?

You can replace jadi, but the feel shifts slightly:

sehingga
- Akhirnya kami mencapai kompromi kecil, sehingga semua orang setuju membayar denda yang sama.
- More formal; emphasizes cause–effect: “as a result / so that.”
karena itu
- Akhirnya kami mencapai kompromi kecil, karena itu semua orang setuju membayar denda yang sama.
- Formal and written; close to “therefore / because of that.”
jadi (original)
- Informal–neutral, very common in conversation: “so.”

All are grammatical, but:

jadi – most natural in everyday speech and neutral writing.
sehingga / karena itu – lean more to formal or written style.